Children as Predators: Courts Should Handle Juvenile Sex Offenders and Adult Sex Offenders Differently
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Authors
Wong, Kristyn M.N.
Issue Date
2019
Volume
52
Issue
2
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
ABSTRACT|This Note will discuss the dangerous and controversial practice of sentencing juvenile sex offenders. First, this Note will discuss the Bush administration’s Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, (“Adam Walsh Act”) which includes the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) creating the sex offender registry. Since the United States Supreme Court has yet to hear a juvenile sex offender case, this Note will discuss what the Court has said on the topic of juvenile offenders. This Note will then discuss the Pennsylvania Supreme Court‘s determination regarding the punitive effects of SORNA on juvenile sex offenders. Next, this Note will look at the split between the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth and Eleventh Circuits regarding whether a juvenile offender may be required to register as a sex offender under SORNA. This Note will also discuss what some state courts have determined when addressing lifetime registration requirements for juvenile sex offenders.|Ultimately, this Note will argue that a lifetime registration requirement
for a juvenile sex offender constitutes, for all intents and purposes, a life sentence. This Note will examine SORNA’s punitive
effects and the purpose of juvenile court system. Next, this Note will consider Pennsylvania’s process of assessing juvenile offenders as a solution to the problem of how to handle juvenile sex offenders in the justice system. This Note will address the potential objection from within SORNA, which states that only juveniles aged fourteen years and older who have committed aggravated sex abuse, or higher crime, will be required to register. However, this Note will rebut this objection
by examining why an irrebuttable presumption that a juvenile offender is at a high risk of reoffending is inappropriate. Finally,
this Note will address why a juvenile does not fall within the meaning of the term sex offender.
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Citation
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law